Post's Career Day Guides TLU Past Southwestern in SCAC Tournament Opener

CLEBURNE, Texas -- Texas Lutheran Baseball opened the 2023 SCAC Tournament with a 10-5 win over Southwestern on Friday at The Depot at Cleburne Station. The Bulldogs (28-13) advance to face No. 2 seed Trinity on Saturday at 12 PM.

The day was highlighted by a career day by junior first baseman Tyler Post (San Antonio/Johnson) who went 3-for-5 with a double, two homers, a second inning grand slam and an eighth inning three-run homer, and eight RBI on the day. The eight RBI tie a single-game program record, with Post's eight RBI performance being the first since joining the SCAC and first since Jeremy Macklin's eight RBI performance against Mississippi College in 2009. The eight RBIs from Post are the most by one player in a single tournament game in SCAC history. The eight piece also ties for the third-most in any game in league history. The last time a SCAC player had an eight RBI game was Josh Gilliam of Schreiner, who had eight against Dallas on April 13, 2019. Post now has a league high 70 RBIs on the season, which is already tied for the seventh-most in a single season in league history. The 70 RBIs are the most in a single-season in the program's NCAA-era and third most in program history, only trailing Aaron Merhoff's 85 and 80 RBI seasons in 1999 and 1998 respectively.

Senior Blade Strzelczyk (San Antonio/East Central) got the start, tossing 5 2/3 innings and allowing four runs on four hits and three walks. He struck out four batters on the the afternoon. With the victory, he picked up his fourth win of the season.

Strzelczyk allowed four runs on four hits and an error in the first inning but would not allow a hit in his final 4 2/3 innings of work, with only three base runners for the remainder of his outing.

Brendan Beard (Coldspring/Coldspring-Oakhurst) came out of the bullpen in the sixth inning with two runners on and two outs and struck out the first batter he saw to escape the jam. Beard would throw 3 1/3 innings and allow a run on two hits and a walk to secure his SCAC-leading fourth save of the season.

Alec Sanchez (Waxahachie/Waxahachie) went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI, while Blake Cappadona (Mont Belvieu/Barbers Hill) was 1-for-3 with two walks, an RBI, and three runs scored.

After falling behind 4-0 in the top of the first, Post got the Bulldogs on the board in the bottom of the inning with an RBI ground-rule double that scored Cappadona. Sanchez would hit a double of his own to score Post to cut the Pirates lead in half to 4-2. Post would return to the plate in the bottom of the second and hit a grand slam to give Texas Lutheran a 6-4 lead. The grand slam raises the program record set this season by the Bulldogs as they now stand at five grand slams this season.

This is where the score would remain until the seventh when the Pirates would close the gap to 6-5.

An RBI double from Cappadona got the scoring started in the eighth for TLU. A two-out walk to Holden Philippus (San Antonio/San Antonio Christian) set the stage for Tyler Post who would hit his second homer of the game in the eighth, a three-run homer to bring the game to its final score of 10-5.

Tickets for the tournament are available for purchase by clicking here. All streaming and live stats links can be found on tlubulldogs.com. The game will be broadcast on KWED AM 1580 with Chris Austin on the call.

For more information on Texas Lutheran baseball and all TLU athletics, you can find updates on tlubulldogs.com and all official TLU social media channels (@tluathletics and @TLU_Baseball on Twitter, @tlubulldogs on Facebook, and @tlu_athletics on Instagram and TikTok).